EP 156: Musa al-Gharbi on Why We Have Never Been Woke

Lean Out with Tara Henley

The period often referred to as The Great Awokening is winding down now, and we’re starting to get a better understanding of what happened. Our guest on today’s program argues that we have seen these kinds of social justice-styled movements before in American history — and that they are in fact driven by, as he puts it, “frustrated erstwhile elites condemning the social order that failed them and jockeying to secure the position they feel they deserve.”

Musa al-Gharbi is an American sociologist and an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His new book — out this week — is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com